by Lacey Pfalz
Last updated: 2:10 PM ET, Mon February 14, 2022
January was a record-breaking sales month for tour operator G Adventures, recording its highest sales month since the pandemic began and demonstrating that travelers are feeling optimistic about the future of travel in 2022.
According to G Adventures, the past eight weeks has seen more travelers choosing to reduce the time between booking travel and their actual departure dates, with 39 percent of U.S. bookings being made for trips departing now through the end of April. Travelers who were sick with Omicron or are fully boosted are most likely leading this surge in last-minute bookings, wanting to make the most of their immunity. Sixty-two percent of these travelers are also first-time clients.
Travelers are also much more interested in getting personal help from a travel advisor; while two-thirds of pre-pandemic bookings were made online, bookings made with travel advisors have nearly reached 50 percent in January.
So what types of travel are travelers most interested in?
Interest in international trips has risen dramatically from December to January, with searches for European destinations on the tour operator's website increasing 88 percent month-to-month. Searches for South America rose 72 percent and searches for Asia rose 62 percent. This is most likely due to many countries relaxing their entry requirements.
The tour operator's Active travel style has increased over the pandemic, becoming the third most popular travel style in bookings. These trips include active challenges like hiking Mt. Kilimanjaro or the Andes. Another travel style growing in popularity is the 18-to-Thirtysomethings travel style, which focuses on experiential trips for younger generations.
"January is always one of the most important sales months for travel, and this year we found ourselves in a particularly favorable position, thanks to pent-up demand, desirable in-market deals and our ever-growing inventory of trips on offer," said Ben Perlo, G Adventures' managing director for the U.S. and Latin America. "We're expecting to see this intent to book increase as more destinations, in particular as Australia, New Zealand, parts of Europe and South America, begin to relax entry requirements."
G Adventures will operate over 750 trips in February and March alone and expects to continue its success into the rest of 2022.
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